Cabinet of Canada

The Cabinet of Canada (Cabinet du Canada) is a body of ministers of the Crown that, along with the Canadian monarch, and within the tenets of the Westminster system, forms the government of Canada. Chaired by the prime minister, the Cabinet is a committee of the King's Privy Council for Canada and the senior echelon of the Ministry, the membership of the Cabinet and Ministry often being co-terminal; there were no members of the latter who were not also members of the former. For practical reasons, the Cabinet is informally referred to either in relation to the prime minister in charge of it or the number of ministries since Confederation. The current Cabinet is the Cabinet of Justin Trudeau, which is part of the 29th Ministry. The interchangeable use of the terms cabinet and ministry is a subtle inaccuracy that can cause confusion. The Government of Canada, formally referred to as His Majesty's Government, is defined by the constitution as the King acting on the advice of his Privy Council; what is technically known as the King-in-Council or, sometimes, the Governor-in-Council, referring to the governor general as the King's stand-in. However, the Privy Council—composed mostly of former members of parliament, current and former chief justices of Canada, and other elder statesmen—rarely meets in full; as the stipulations of responsible government require that those who directly advise the monarch and governor general on how to exercise the Royal Prerogative be accountable to the elected House of Commons, the day-to-day operation of government is guided only by a sub-group of the Privy Council made up of individuals who hold seats in Parliament. This body of ministers of the Crown is the Cabinet, which has come to be the council in the phrase King-in-Council. In the context of constitutional monarchy and responsible government, the ministerial advice tendered is typically binding; though, it is important to note that the royal prerogative belongs to the Crown, not to any of the ministers, and the royal and viceregal figures may unilaterally use these powers in exceptional constitutional crisis situations.